Viral photo shows elderly man teaching stranger how to tie a tie

An elderly man has been caught on camera in the act of teaching a struggling stranger the meticulous art of tying a tie.

The image, posted to the Facebook page of witness Red Desmond Thomas on November 15, has received over 693,690 likes, 1750 comments and 181,550 shares.

In it, a white-haired man wearing a beret is pictured showing the ropes to a younger African-American man at the Lindbergh Center subway station in Atlanta, Georgia, while a woman in a red coat - reportedly his wife - stands by.

Mr Thomas claims it was the woman who first alerted her husband to the younger man’s struggles and asked that he lend a helping hand.

“The older gentleman moved without hesitation (almost a reflex response) and gave [the younger man] a step-by-step tutorial,” Mr Thomas said in the photo caption.